(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
As an image forming apparatus, there is an image forming apparatus where toner containers storing replenishing toners are replaceably mounted and the toners are replenished to a developer unit from the mounted toner containers in accordance with the decrease of the toners in the developer unit. In the case of this type of image forming apparatus, it is necessary to facilitate the replacement of the toner container through the detection of the life (emptiness) of the mounted toner container. Further, it is preferable to warn a user of the decrease of the remaining amount of toner or to inform a user of the amount (%) of toner remaining in the toner container even before the life of the toner container has come to an end.
Here, there is proposed a technique that estimates the remaining amount of developer by counting pixels and detects the amount of developer, which remains immediately before the developer runs out, by capacitance.
Further, there is proposed a technique that predicts the remaining amount of toner from a cumulative value of the amount of replenished toner until the life of a toner cartridge becomes equal to or shorter than a threshold where there is the remaining amount of toner and predicts the remaining amount of developer at the time of emptiness from the cumulative number of pixels.